BellaOnline Forums Religion and Spirituality Spirituality Do we create our own reality by our thoughts?

Could those of you who believe that we create our own reality by our thoughts please explain to me how, and why you believe this to be true?

Patience.

You can see by your own life that it's true. If you sit down and write out 25 things you believe to be true about your life and then you look at your life, you will see these dominant beliefs to be played out in your reality.

So the question is-if you change the way you think, change your dominant thoughts and intentionally direct your thoughts to reflect the reality you WANT to see in your life-will you life change to reflect your new thoughts and beliefs?

I believe the answer is yes. Wayne Dyer says "Change the way you look at things and the things you look at will change."

Joan

Please! Don't anyone post a copy of how to get the "free report" on here. We've seen that ad enough already.

Thanks Joan for your thoughtful response.

I am currently 'working through memories', and having to take a close look at things which have happened to me through my life. I have heard many say that we are responsible for what happens in our lives, either because we attract it or create the situation - 'set the stage' so to speak, for what happens.

I am sincerely seeing the truth in this thread, and I am listening to all points of view. It is very important to me that I know the truth. I guess you could say I am 'weighing up' and deciding which point of view (those who believe it and those who don't) is the truth. It is a bit like listening to all the views on whether or not there is a God, so that you can make a balanced and informed decision for yourself.

So, do you have any idea at what age we begin to create our reality? For example, does it begin in the womb, or after we are born, or at a later age?

Thank you for your help.

Patience.

Joanj,

your commitment to thinking and reality is praiseworthy.

Yes, patience,

I am also looking forward to know about the age we begin creating our reality with our thoughts.

There is a lot of fuzzy language and fuzzy logic going on here. I've been criticized for quoting dictionaries before, but I think that it's important to mean what you say, and thus important to know what it is you're saying.

re�al�i�ty /riˈ�lɪti/ Pronunciation Key - Show Spelled Pronunciation[ree-al-i-tee] Pronunciation Key - Show IPA Pronunciation
�noun, plural -ties for 3, 5�7. 1. the state or quality of being real.
2. resemblance to what is real.
3. a real thing or fact.
4. real things, facts, or events taken as a whole; state of affairs: the reality of the business world; vacationing to escape reality.
5. Philosophy. a. something that exists independently of ideas concerning it.
b. something that exists independently of all other things and from which all other things derive.

6. something that is real.
7. something that constitutes a real or actual thing, as distinguished from something that is merely apparent.
�Idiom8. in reality, in fact or truth; actually: brave in appearance, but in reality a coward.


--------------------------------------------------------------------------------

[Origin: 1540�50; < ML re&#257;lit&#257;s. See real1, -ity]
Dictionary.com Unabridged (v 1.1)
Based on the Random House Unabridged Dictionary, � Random House, Inc. 2006.
American Heritage Dictionary - Cite This Source re�al�i�ty (r&#275;-&#257;l'&#301;-t&#275;) Pronunciation Key
n. pl. re�al�i�ties

The quality or state of being actual or true.
One, such as a person, an entity, or an event, that is actual: "the weight of history and political realities" (Benno C. Schmidt, Jr.)
The totality of all things possessing actuality, existence, or essence.
That which exists objectively and in fact: Your observations do not seem to be about reality.

adj. Relating to or being a genre of television or film in which a storyline is created by editing footage of people interacting or competing with one another in unscripted, unrehearsed situations.


(Download Now or Buy the Book) The American Heritage� Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition
Copyright � 2006 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
Online Etymology Dictionary - Cite This Source
reality

1550, originally a legal term in the sense of "fixed property," from M.L. realitatem (nom. realitas), from L.L. realis; meaning "real existence" is from 1647.

Online Etymology Dictionary, � 2001 Douglas Harper

So it seems obvious that we do not create reality, we merely inhabit it. Since we are limited in time, and since reality preexisted us and will continue without us, we cannot be the creating/sustaing force behind it. The only way around this conclusion is to postulate that we have always existed, and just don't remember the first 15 billion years or so of our existance, but even that doesn't stand up, unless you're a sollopist.

Because, if you accept the fact that other people do in fact have an independent existance from yourself, and are sentient (and if you don't, there's really no point in talking to you, is there?) You have to admit that there will be times when two or more people will be in conflict. At that time, one or the other would have to be living in the other's reality, as their intentions would be divergent.

It seems that when called on it, what most of the "Secret" proponents are claiming isn't that we create reality, but that our thoughts influence our actions, and our actions influence the world around is. This is trivial, a tautology, and as far as a topic of conversation goes, less valuable than the weather.

I respectfully can't agree that this topic is less valuable than the weather. People are working on a path to spiritual growth which seems to me the most important reason we are here in this world.

I have to clarify one thing, Nechochwen. We don't create "reality" we create "Our own reality" which is a different thing. Reality is different to different people. Two people can view the exact same situation, yet one sees it as a positive thing and one a negative thing. One person may look at a person of another race, for instance and see a spiritual brother who is no different than himself. Yet another looks at the same person of a different race and experiences fear or even hatred. The person they are looking at does not change but their reality or experience of the person is entirely opposite.

Therefore we choose whether to experience things in a positive or negative way. It isn't the experience itself which is inherently "good" or "bad". We ALWAYS have a choice in how we choose to experience life or in how we think.

Patience I would suggest reading some books by Wayne Dyer in your quest to understand your experience of your past. He wrote a book called the 10 secrets to inner peace and success that changed my life when I was unable to forgive myself and others for things that happened in the past.

Way before the secret, I believed that we create situations in our lives to help us learn lessons that we need to know on our path to spiritual growth. I do think our thought influences our actions but I also believe our thoughts themselves also influence the flow of life around us.

As far as the age you begin creating your experiences, some say at birth or even before but I can't say myself. I find it hard to believe that a tiny baby would choose illness, for instance. Except perhaps they chose that before birth from another spiritual realm and were born into this life with those problems as part of their own spiritual path.

According to some beliefs we are born into this life having chosen our parents and the life we will live as part of that path. Even those who experience violent ends, for whatever reason, knew that would be their end when they came here. This is pretty deep for a forum conversation!

If we are in the flow of the Source who created us, there will be no conflict with others. If we choose to believe in abundance for all, we have no need to believe we need to fight others for what we want. Some aren't in this flow and seek to steal or overpower others but we can also choose not to play their games and avoid them. I would think if I met conflict in some plan I had for my future, that I should perhaps rethink the plan to overcome the obstacle, rather than stand and fight with someone about it.

Hope that helps.

If human beings did not create their own reality, the world would exist with us upon it, in the cycle of birth and death, with nothing else.

Perhaps we would be conscious of the thought that we exist, but we would not have the need to "invent" reality. Therefore we would not be having this discussion. Humankind created language, therefore humankind created the definition of the word "reality" thus giving the word meaning. So in that sense we did create our own reality..lol.

When the first primitive being picked up a stick and proceeded to create a tool, wasn't that in essence creating reality? We don't just arrive upon this earth and twiddle our thumbs until we leave.. at least not the vast majority of us.

So if humankind as a whole is capable of creating a mass reality, then why would it seem so strange to think that each us create our own reality in our own lives?

Reality is a simple thing. It is simply making energy manifest. The energy is already there.. has always been... and since energy cannot be destroyed.. will always be.

Like cooks that add ingredients to a pot to create a soup, we take the raw energy around us and create it into that which we want or need.

But, I don't profess to know all the answers like our friend
Nechochwen. Nobody really knows the how or what of existence, any more than anyone really knows the how and what of creation.
We all have our own theories and concepts, each one as important and as plausible as the next.

If you wish to clarify, then you really need to clarify. Telling me that "Our own reality" is different than reality tells me (or any other non-telepath) nothing about what "Our own reality" is, only one thing that it isn't. You obviously have some sort of idiosyncratic definition going on, so tell us what it is. Define "Our own reality." If you can't define it, you don't really understand it.



Actually, no it isn't. Reality is reality. By definition.



You're talking about differences in evaluation, not differences in reality. Values fluctuate. The price of gold changes every minute, but the reality of gold is the same no matter who's buying or selling. Or not. Gold exists even if noone is thinking about it.



Correct, reality is reality.



So, "our own reality" is merely evaluation? So you're telling us that our thoughts create our values and paradigms? This is not self-evident how?



Again, you're conflating separate ideas. Experience is a sensory process, evaluation (whether the experience was positive or negative) is an independent, mental process.



Of course not, because the evaluation is an independent step.



The use of the unconditional ALWAYS makes the statement false.